Ways to Gain the Respect of Your Coworkers

March 05, 2015 by Sara Woznicki in Dating, Humor, Life In Your 20's, life lessons, Sara's Column, Tweets and Mascara, Work

Being the youngest in the office means that you've got to build up your credibility and prove that you're more than just a kid fresh out of their starter job. Despite that your job may be to build out social media channels, which is a medium most don't value because social media is for millennials, it would be nice to get a bit of respect from your coworkers. Here's how to go about building that respect and credibility as one of the younger, but equally important, members of the team:

Reluctant Fatherhood

March 04, 2015 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Humor, Life In Your 20's, life lessons

When I was 14, my dad bought me a cockatiel. Abigail was four weeks old, too young to come home, so I visited her everyday in the pet shop. She was my child.

I didn't know she was also my mail-order bride.

You're about to gain some avian knowledge: Firstly, female birds can lay eggs. You're probably like, "I knew that . . ." But here's the trivia: They don't have to. A bird only lays an egg if she is a.) healthy and b.) comfortable/stable/dumb enough to think she's found a good nest and mate. (And when birds lay egg(s), no, it is not going to hatch unless there's a male to fertilize it. Immaculate conceptions don't happen in birdcages.)

How to Crawl Out of Your Rock Bottom, or Reasons Not to Get a Pixie After a Bad Breakup

March 03, 2015 by astoldoverbrunch in Dating, Guest Post, Life In Your 20's, life lessons

By Paige Sullivan* *Paige is both today's guest blogger and an over-caffeinated, questioning-her-life-choices Atlanta, GA resident. Additionally, she is a poetry graduate student and a composition instructor (Remember when you took English 101? She's the one that teaches it now). She writes on and off at her personal blog, and her poetry can be found in The Red Clay Review, Naugatuck River Review, Stone Highway Review, and others. If you are interested in guest blogging for ATOB, contact us at AsToldOverBrunch@gmail.com.

Imagine that you’ve liked this guy for nine years. That’s right: Nine years.

Imagine after that one year of high school when you guys overlapped, something finally comes of that freshman year crush. You finish high school, get through college, have a few boyfriends, experience some heartbreak, start grad school, and finish the first year of your MFA like it’s a painful cartwheel. You’ve been patient.

Imagine High School Crush comes out of the woodwork, moves back to Georgia, and suddenly wants to meet up for dinner. Imagine you two hit it off perfectly, fall in love, and make plans to do it RIGHT. I’m talking living together, a six year plan, hopes to one day move to Europe. I’m talking love like you always hoped for.

The Read Receipt: Read This

March 02, 2015 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Dating, Humor, Life In Your 20's

Two days ago my friend texted me complaining that the guy she's talking to hasn't turned off his read receipts. Read receipts, for those of you not in possession of a Smartphone, is the phenomenon where you send a text and can then see that your friend/crush/enemy/dad read the text at 6:38 PM.

Nifty, right?

Wrong. Because why aren't they replying? Okay, they're probably making dinner . . . now eating dessert . . . now watching TV, maybe cleaning the dishes . . . checking Facebook . . . showering . . . WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO RESPOND?

Six Types of People the Dress Introduced You To

February 28, 2015 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Humor, Life In Your 20's, Social Media

On Thursday night, I read a Buzzfeed article about a dress, went out for ice cream, and returned an hour later to social media overtaken by color confusion like an African virus. Seriously, who didn't either post or like a status about this phenomenon? Personally, I posted two statuses.

Anyway, I noticed six different types of people emerge:

The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Bandwagoners

February 27, 2015 by astoldoverbrunch in Guest Post, Life In Your 20's, Social Media

By Carlisle SargentOur guest blogger this week is Carlisle Sargent, currently living undercover as a jaded graduate student in South Carolina. She is a cofounder of the esteemed audio startup, Goat Rodeo, as well as a lover of good design and giving bad advice. Play with her here. If you are interested in guest blogging, email us at AsToldOverBrunch@gmail.com.

I remember this moment clearly. At the grungy claptrap my best friends and I rented in college, we hosted many parties. I was often in charge of the playlist because I am exceptionally selective about the music that I dance to. On this particular night, at this particular party, my brother was hanging out in the living room with some of his wide-eyed freshman friends. I walked in and fiddled with the music until I found something I liked. After a few minutes, I heard my brother yell.

“Carlie, woah, this beat. This is GAGA?!”

The song I chose was "Scheiße," the 7th track from Lady Gaga’s album Born This Way. And yes, at about thirty seconds in, a laser-blasted-super-synthy-strut-your-sh*t-club-going-up-on-a-Tuesday dance beat is dropped, and it is dirty. Although I was happy that my brother, a musical genius in his own right, could appreciate one of the lesser-known Gaga hits, I was bummed. How are people continually surprised that this woman makes incredible music?

#ThrowbackThursday: The Time We Visited the Scientologists

February 26, 2015 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Humor, Life In Your 20's, life lessons, Sara's Column

Sophomore year, Sara and Cazey came into possession of a super cheap bus ticket to Washington, D.C. Unlike everyone else on the bus, we did not plan a single event for the entire day. After all, our motto at this point in our lives was, "We did it for the story." (We might still live this way, but who's judging?)

Everyone else had plans to visit the National Fill-in-the-Blank Museum and had packed metro maps and stored taxi cab numbers. We showed up on the National Mall with not even Smartphones. (This was 2011, after all.) We had some sort of game plan - Cazey wanted to see the National Cathedral because it looked like Hogwarts. Sara wanted to spend a day not on campus. And mutually, we didn't want to spend more than a few dimes. We had alcohol to illegally buy that night.

5 Times I Knew Too Much About Technology

February 24, 2015 by Sara Woznicki in Humor, Leisure, Life In Your 20's, life lessons, Sara's Column, Work

I grew up on a computer. We'd play the lifesaver mini golf games after school, compete at typer shark during school and were given calculators by the time we hit middle school math. All this computer advancement makes anything less than advanced technology difficult to deal with. Here's five times within the last year alone I was too computer savvy for every day life:

Brunch Review: Duck Donuts

February 22, 2015 by Sara Woznicki in Leisure, Life In Your 20's, Richmond Brunch Review, Sara's Column, Tweets and Mascara, Uncategorized

Apparently Duck Donuts are a big deal in another state, so they built it into a chain. One of these new shops is right here in Willow Lawn of Richmond, Virginia. Naturally, we had to go while I was still eating unhealthy things a few weeks ago.

When you walk into the store, the sweet, sweet scent of donut hits you automatically. It's like a giant, aromatic hug of donut. And they have free samples. However, the menu is confusing, with you being able to make your own donut, but then there's also specials. The specials are labeled like, "Monday's Special: Reeses Cup," so you'd think you can only get it on Monday, but you can actually get it any day you'd like.

Stop the Thought Crimes: Use Words, Not Emojis

February 20, 2015 by Sara Woznicki in Life In Your 20's, life lessons, Sara's Column, Social Media, Tweets and Mascara

**Originally posted on WriteHere**

George Orwell’s novel 1984 is becoming a reality, but it's not the government deeming self-expression a thought crime. We’re doing it to ourselves. For those of you who haven’t read 1984 (or for those who were supposed to read it in high school and never did), the basic premise of the book is that the government is working to control people’s thoughts through Newspeak, where they eliminate words so that people cannot rebel.

When the government takes away words, it lessens people’s ability to object to their totalitarian ways, and hinders people from being able to give a deeper context to their thoughts. Without words, people lose their ability to think on their own accord because they can't articulate anything other than what the government wishes. It’s mind control.